OTTAWA – Anti-poverty advocates are disappointed that Ontario’s new Conservative government intends to cancel the province’s basic income pilot project, arguing that the study is important to help reduce poverty far beyond the province.

A $15-an-hour minimum wage, new rules to help unions organize, across-the-board increases in vacation and emergency-leave time and scheduling rules to prevent employers from suddenly cancelling shifts at the last minute are all getting strong support from churches and faith-based intervenors at cross-Ontario hearings into labour law reform.

WASHINGTON – In this year's election, voters went against nearly all of the ballot initiatives backed by Catholic leaders and advocates, except the referendums on minimum wage increases and gun control measures.

ALBANY, N.Y. -- New York's Catholic bishops have called for state lawmakers to approve a "modest" increase in the state's minimum wage.

New York's current minimum wage is $7.25. Eighteen states and the District of Columbia have higher minimum wages. A bill sponsored by Sheldon Silver, a Democrat who is speaker of the state Assembly, the legislature's lower chamber, has sponsored a bill to raise the minimum wage to $8.50. The Republican-controlled state Senate has stated its opposition to a hike in the minimum wage.